The Texas freshman senator and his senior aides are unleashing a barrage of attacks on their fellow Republicans for refusing to support their plan to choke off Obamacare as a condition for funding the government. Cruz’s chief of staff is lambasting fellow conservatives like Oklahoma’s Tom Coburn for serving in the “surrender caucus.” His top political strategist has compared Mitch McConnell to Barack Obama. And the senator himself has said many Republicans are “scared” to wage this fight.

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Reality check: Shutdown threats

Cruz: I don’t trust the GOP

The results have sparked something of a GOP civil war over an issue that, ironically, the GOP is united behind — repealing Obamacare. Cruz’s strategy is a departure from the usually clubby chamber, as he’s grown increasingly alienated from his caucus.

The essence of the clash is this: Cruz can’t comprehend why his GOP colleagues don’t welcome the fight, while more senior Republicans think the junior Texan simply doesn’t understand — or care — about the dire political consequences for their party of a government shutdown. Plus, Cruz’s critics think the plan to repeal Obamacare is destined to fail.

But worries about a shutdown are falling on deaf ears.

“There is a powerful, defeatist approach among Republicans in Washington,” Cruz told conservative radio host Dana Loesch earlier this week. “I think they’re beaten down and they’re convinced that we can’t give a fight, and they’re terrified.”

Cruz isn’t alone in the crusade, which is also being waged by two other possible 2016 candidates — Marco Rubio of Florida and Rand Paul of Kentucky. Sen. Mike Lee, the Utah Republican and tea party favorite, is also leading the charge. Cruz, Rubio and Lee held a discussion of their proposal on the Senate floor on Tuesday — one immediately rebutted by Coburn, whose office on Tuesday distributed a new Congressional Research Service report concluding that “if government were shut down, funding for Obamacare would still continue.”

But Cruz and his aides are going even further than the other conservatives, lashing out at GOP naysayers in unusually personal terms.

Indeed, Cruz is part of a new breed of Republicans who relish the intraparty warfare, believing that a push for GOP purity will help build their stature within the party while pulling Republicans further to the right. His tactics go even further than those employed by former South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint, who waged intense battles over Senate primaries but was more selective in choosing which fights to wage against his party in the Capitol.

Cruz’s uncompromising style has won him legions of fans on the right — a fight that started earlier this year when he battled Chuck Hagel’s nomination as defense secretary, continued when he helped block House-Senate budget negotiations because of concerns over a debt ceiling hike, and intensified when he fought with Rubio and GOP senators over a bipartisan immigration bill.

The fight has intensified in recent weeks after Lee circulated a letter, which now includes 12 signatures, asking for support to oppose any budget bill that includes Obamacare funding. That letter has become a test among some GOP groups — including the Club for Growth — of whether Republicans are serious about eliminating the law before much of it takes effect at the beginning of 2014, and it has put McConnell and others up for reelection next year in a tough spot.

Some Republicans point out that even if funding for Obamacare is eliminated in the continuing resolution, much of the law will still stand because of mandatory health care spending enacted under the Affordable Care Act. Many Republicans have stark memories from the Clinton-era shutdown fights and believe the GOP took the lion’s share of the blame for a politically disastrous fight.

“We should do everything we can to delay the individual mandate for a year. But my view is that this is not really what the public is interested in. You shut the government down: That means people lose Social Security checks,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). “I don’t think linking the two is a very good idea.”

McConnell’s primary opponent, Matt Bevin, has called on the GOP leader to publicly pledge he will oppose any bill that provides funding for the law.

McConnell has repeatedly deflected questions about whether he will sign the Lee letter.

“We’ve had a lot of internal discussion about the way forward this fall,” McConnell said Tuesday. “There’s no particular announcement at this point.”

Others believe Cruz’s gambit is aimed at boosting his own brand ahead of a possible presidential bid.

A former top Senate GOP leadership aide, who asked for anonymity, said Cruz’s latest battle “isn’t about principle and it isn’t about party.”